So, I’m going to attempt the seemingly impossible (to me at least), and build a proton pack, complete with fiberglass shell… from scratch. I’ve been researching all the methods and settled on fiberglass because it seems most durable, light, and screen accurate. I plan to start out by making the mock up out of wood, and doing a rubber mold off of that.
I’m getting excited, but at the same time, I don’t really know exactly what I’m doing… I’ve looked at Stefan and Sean’s plans, and I plan to go as far as I can using Sean’s, and fill in the missing parts with Stefan’s. This leaves me with a few questions that some people here could probably help me with:
I am looking for the measurement of the portion of the pack between the cyclotron and the PPD assembly. You know, the middle area that looks like it would be straight up against the motherboard if the pack were actually solid. Then, also the portion there where it jumps up to a higher plane, right above Vacuum Hose Connector Disc. It looks to me as though the whole layout is built on plywood “motherboard” of its own, but I can’t find any measurements anywhere to verify this. (Sorry I’m new and don’t know how to post pictures that might be helpful, if you’re having trouble understanding exactly what I’m talking about)
Also, doing your own fiberglass shell is a big undertaking as I’m sure you’re stating to realize. Unless you really want to do it for the experience of doing it and/or want to go into production of shells it’s much more economical in both time and money to either buy a fiberglass shell or scratchbuild a single shell out of another material like MDF or Styrene. Molds are expensive so unless you’re planning on making multiple packs it’s not worth going to the trouble.
Wow. Yeah, that’s it. Okay, in my defense, I hadn’t looked at Stefan’s plans that thoroughly yet… I’ve been mainly concentrating on Sean’s plans, so far. Let’s hope this oversight isn’t an indication of the build to come… :sigh:
I realize this is going to be quite an undertaking, but I want to do it right, and yes, depending on how everything goes, my final goal is to start manufacturing shells for sale. At least long enough to make enough of a profit to pay for my own pack. I’m a construction worker by trade and I’ve been unemployed due to the economy for the last 7 months, so I was thinking of ways to make some money between jobs. This is something I thought sounded like a fun/challenging project that could actually pay off. I mean, I’ve got tools and time, so why not. I’ve wanted my own pack anyway since I was like 8.
once apon a time I toyed with the idea of building my own buck and casting fiberglass shells, but then I found out how truly expensive the whole process, ie the amount of silicon you need to buy for your mold for example…
Also jackdoud is exactly right, there has been alot of new infomation and new amazing photos that show huge flaws in Stefans measurements. If you follow his measurements then you will be offering shells that are out of date so to speak. To my knowledge the bigi330 is the most upto date shell in terms of measurements outside of a real movie pack cast. You could always have a chat to one of the guys that made that Shell?
I think the best idea would be to talk to Vincenzo330 and ask him how much the overall costs are for setting up a mold and how many casts you need to make to make your money back and also ultimately if you will return a profit going down this path?
Thanks guys! I’ll definitely take that all into consideration and ask some of the successful builders out there. I really do appreciate your guy’s help and advice. Does anyone know of any other threads that deal with more detailed measurements than either Sean or Sefan’s plans that I might’ve missed?
Nope, that’s pretty much it. If you have doubts about something please post up and ask for opinions. There’s nothing we like more than arguing over minutia. Just know that not all movie packs are the same, there are differences between hero, semi-hero and stunt packs not to mention between GB1 and GB2. If you want to get really accurate you have to pick which pack you’re going to try and recreate like bigi71 did with his GB2 Hero pack: http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21988
I’m going for a GB1 accurate (as reasonably possible) pack. Has anyone reading this actually built a wooden buck before? I’ve got plenty of measurements and the plans to go over, but I’d like to talk to someone who’s actually done this before.
I was thinking of doing this myself, just to have a project to pass the time, and to see if it would turn out any good. Just what kind of money are we talking about? $500? I take it it would be no less expensive if we brought it to a shop that specializes in these things?
I’ve never casted a shell but I have done casting and fiberglass work. Here’s my rough guestimate at what building, molding and casting a pack shell will cost:
Buck Materials: (styrene, glue, putty) $100
Mold Materials: Silicone $500, Clay (if you’re doing the fill style mold) $75, Fiberglass $100, Misc. Supplies $40
That’s $955 to get one shell IF you don’t mess up and not including shipping costs for any of it. It’s also assuming you have all the tools necessary, add money for a drill, palm sander and scale at minimum. The guys that have done an actual shell mold can speak more precisely but I’m probably not that far off.
Basically, you’ll put on 2 coats of the straight rubber, a few coats with the rubber and thickner, and then one final coat of straight rubber. Be sure you make your mother mold in pieces, otherwise you will never get the castings out.
As far as castings we have a tutorial on our blog here:
A gallon kit of Rebound 25 is $183.72 plus shipping. You’ll need at least 2 kits. According to the specs you need about $4 worth Thi-Vex for a gallon kit of Rebound. That’s about $372 just for silicone before shipping costs assuming you only need two gallon kits.
It is $191 after shipping (We go through alot of this stuff) and it is possible to get a pack mold from a 1 gallon unit. And one bottle of thick vex will last you a very long time. You only add a few drops when you mix the rubber.
If you want to use smooth-on they have a distributor finder on their website. Otherwise it totally depends on where you are as I have no idea what “local” is for you. You could try looking in your local business pages for silicones, polymers or theatrical supplies. Otherwise poke around the internet for other silicone producers and see what their local distributor lists are like.
Is there a clear superiority of the Smooth-On products, or is that just what you’ve used? Also, by “local type stores” I meant like a Home Depot, or Lowes.
No, but some specialty art stores carry some products, but it’s likely to be very basic silicon and resin. Check their website.
As far as superiority, basic resin wise I don’t really like theirs that much, but when it comes to silicone I have not found any better than Smooth-on, but I’ve only tried a handful of other brands. SmoothOn has been really good at tear-prevention and tear-stopping, while other silicons I have tried could be torn in half once a tear starts.
Big Box “Home Improvment” stores are pretty much suburban wastelands of weekend-warrior projects and cut-rate interior designer crap anymore. You can “build something together” with “more saving, more doing” but only if it’s what they’re offering and how they think you should. It’s possible to repurpose stuff you can find in those stores but it’s really not worth the time and if you ask anyone that works there for help they’ll look at you like you have three heads. It’s better to find specialty stores that deal in a few things and do it well.
I’m totally with you on that. I did purchase a bunch of fiberglass supplies there a couple of days ago though. I was there anyway, saw it, and thought that I’d just pick up as much as I thought I might need, and return it if it’s the wrong stuff, or if I find out something else works better. Just wanted to have it on hand, just in case.
Planning on starting on actually building my buck tomorrow. In looking at other people’s fiberglass shells I’ve noticed a couple of things that I wondered about:
Is there a reason that nobody casts the PPD angled cylinder into their shells? Pros/Cons of me doing it?
How are people achieving that perfect rounded angle behind the attatched cylinder on the PPD?
We’ve had pretty good luck with the Bondo resing and fiberglass supplies you can get at home depot. at $33 a gallon it is significantly cheaper than smooth on casting resins but strong enough to be used on boats and cars.
You can find sample kits of casting silicon at some hobby stores, but they only carry enough to cast something the size of a hot wheels car. Smooth on is the place to get mold materials.
